Writing about whatever interests me, and maybe you.

2015-01-15 training log

I was working Press as pure accessory, with a little warm-up then just 5×8 across. I felt like it was going nowhere, so I opted to change it up a bit. I looked in Paul Carter’s “Strength, Life, Legacy” eBook and took the simple Big-15 programming progression, which is his 5-4-3-2-1 over-warmup approach, followed by an AMRAP set (8-15 rep range) followed by a 50% set (4-8 rep range). I kinda miss programming for Press like I did with 5/3/1, and if this might help me overcome the plateau, great.

I had no idea what weights to use, so I just took what I had been doing, made some calculations up and down the various formulas and percentages, and wound up with the weights you see here. Frankly, I felt like I could do more, like working up to 135 would be a little better. But then I hit the rep sets and they were actually right where they should be. So, I think I’ll keep it here and see how it goes.

Because you can also see, there were other effects later on. I bumped up the Upright Rows weight and that went well. But then I opted to drop the laterals weight because I wanted to be stricter, and I was but it was still good for me. I also felt like the close-grips and pressdowns regressed, but that’s only on paper. Is it actual regression? Can’t say, and really it doesn’t matter. Given the recent events in life, I’m not surprised if I lost a little strength and muscle and I stepped back a hair. Or maybe it’s just because I changed up enough stuff at the front of the session that the back of the session of course lost a little (on paper). Meh… it’s just a small step back, if it really is one at all. I’ll keep going, no big.